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http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp016395wb25t| Title: | The carceral state of Arizona: The human cost of being confined |
| Keywords: | Eloy Detention Center Prisoners—Arizona Prisoners—Arizona Undocumented immigrants—Abuse of—Arizona |
| Issue Date: | Oct-2019 |
| Publisher: | Advancement Project / Puente Human Rights Movement |
| Place of Publication: | Los Angeles |
| Description: | The Carceral State of Arizona: the human cost of being confined sheds light on the harmful ways that migrants of color are criminalized and dehumanized as part of the human rights crisis that is mass incarceration in this country. Through a focus on Arizona, which has long been a testing ground for repressive immigration and policing policies and is currently in the midst of an unprecedented incarceration crisis affecting Black, Latinx and Native communities, Advancement Project National Office and Puente Human Rights Movement seeks to expose yet another piece of this system. The report also provides first-hand stories of people currently detained in the Eloy Detention Center in Eloy, AZ — which helps to underscore how immigration detention — imprisonment —dehumanizes individuals at every level. Through highlighting immigration detention as part of mass incarceration analysis and sharing stories from impacted people, we hope to contribute and advance ongoing movements for human dignity and basic human rights for all as led by Puente and partners. Our collective goal is to broadcast loudly and clearly that immigration detention is part and parcel of mass incarceration. We know that this increase in the criminalization of Black and Brown people, despite the overall reduction in crime rates, cannot be considered an issue separate from immigrant rights. Part One of this report briefly documents incarceration in Arizona and the rise of the “Polimigra.” Part Two documents the conditions we observed and heard about during a stakeholder visit at Eloy Detention Center, a private immigration detention facility run by CoreCivic, a private prison corporation. In Closing, we provide specific recommendations for public policies about how to address the incarceration crisis in Arizona and particularly the conditions at Eloy, including those made by impacted community members. Lastly, while impacted communities in Arizona were battling S.B. 1070, raids, and rampant racial profiling in the 2000s, many advocacy organizations, especially from 2010 through 2013, focused on “comprehensive immigration reform” (“CIR”). The focus on CIR often meant granting relief to one discreet group of “model” migrants, while at the same time increasing the militarization of the border and further criminalizing migration as a whole. The national policy proposals often did not address the root causes of migration nor the root causes of the criminalization of migration and created the false dichotomy of “good” versus “bad” migrants. With hindsight, we wonder whether we would see a different landscape today if the larger immigrant rights movement had focused instead on challenging the criminalization of migration and on challenging increased surveillance and militarization. Unfortunately, we now have nationalized policies of racial profiling, further expansion of criminalization, and a dramatic erosion of human rights for all migrants. In today’s landscape, no group is “off limits,” including infants and toddlers, and even migrants who previously had temporary immigration relief under Temporary Protected Status (“TPS”) or Deferred Action. To truly end the relentless attacks on and criminalization of migrants of color, we must examine the root causes and impacts. It is our hope that with a full understanding of the harms of the carceral crisis, we will work towards the vision of a world that does not criminalize Black and Brown bodies nor put them in cages. |
| URI: | http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp016395wb25t |
| Related resource: | https://advancementproject.org/resources/the-carceral-state-of-arizona-the-human-cost-of-being-confined/ |
| Appears in Collections: | Monographic reports and papers (Publicly Accessible) |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carceral-State-AZ-web.pdf | 19.83 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Download |
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